" The Golden Notebook is Doris Lessing's most important work and has left its mark upon the ideas and feelings of a whole generation of women." -- New York Times Book Review Anna is a writer, author of one very successful novel, who now keeps four notebooks. In one, with a black cover, she reviews the African experience of her earlier years. In a red one she records her political life, her disillusionment with communism. In a yellow one she writes a novel in which the heroine relives part of her own experience. And in ...
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" The Golden Notebook is Doris Lessing's most important work and has left its mark upon the ideas and feelings of a whole generation of women." -- New York Times Book Review Anna is a writer, author of one very successful novel, who now keeps four notebooks. In one, with a black cover, she reviews the African experience of her earlier years. In a red one she records her political life, her disillusionment with communism. In a yellow one she writes a novel in which the heroine relives part of her own experience. And in a blue one she keeps a personal diary. Finally, in love with an American writer and threatened with insanity, Anna resolves to bring the threads of all four books together in a golden notebook. Lessing's best-known and most influential novel, The Golden Noteboo k retains its extraordinary power and relevance decades after its initial publication.
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Seller's Description:
Fine. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 672 p. Perennial Classics. In Stock. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Brand New, Perfect Condition, allow 4-14 business days for standard shipping. To Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. protectorate, P.O. box, and APO/FPO addresses allow 4-28 business days for Standard shipping. No expedited shipping. All orders placed with expedited shipping will be cancelled. Over 3, 000, 000 happy customers.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
New. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 672 p. Perennial Classics. In Stock. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Brand New, Perfect Condition, allow 4-14 business days for standard shipping. To Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. protectorate, P.O. box, and APO/FPO addresses allow 4-28 business days for Standard shipping. No expedited shipping. All orders placed with expedited shipping will be cancelled. Over 3, 000, 000 happy customers.
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Book is in good condition. Minimal signs of wear. It May have markings or highlights but kept to only a few pages. May not come with supplemental materials if applicable.
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Ex-library book. The item shows wear from consistent use, but it remains in good condition and works perfectly. All pages and cover are intact (including the dust cover, if applicable). Spine may show signs of wear. Pages may include limited notes and highlighting.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
The item shows wear from consistent use, but it remains in good condition and works perfectly. All pages and cover are intact (including the dust cover, if applicable). Spine may show signs of wear. Pages may include limited notes and highlighting. May NOT include discs, access code or other supplemental materials.
This is a long, complex novel dealing with several themes. There is the breakdown of personality represented by Anna Wulf's 4 notebooks & the attempt at synthesis in the 5th & final Golden Notebook. Anna is a different person with each man in her life & with her daughter, who anchors her in the reality of daily living. There is the dilemma of British Communists during the '50s as they learn of the atrocities committed by Stalin, which have subverted the social justice for which the rank & file naively worked. Being a Communist in Britain was not as dangerous as being one in the U. S.. There are scenes during WW II in Africa dealing with the problem of race. There is the battle of the sexes. Most of the men in the novel are takers & most of the women givers. Anna Wulf, the protagonist, is divorced & continually encounters married men who want her for a while, until she becomes emotionally involved. These men do not want emotional intimacy. The novel does not depict any good marriages. There is much about women's sexuality. Anna believes in the vaginal orgasm, which she defines as an entirely emotional experience involving love. There is also the artist's struggle. After publishing a critically acclaimed novel, Anna has writer's block. Her dreams are very important to her & seem to be an outlet for her creativity but a diversion from her writing. She undergoes psychoanalysis. It seems to her that Freud dominates her unconscious life & Marx her conscious life. Near the end of the novel, she meets a man who is also a struggling writer. He understands Anna's problem & helps her to overcome her writer's block. Lessing has some profound psychological insights in this book, good characterizations & some vivid description, especially in the African scenes. It is well worth reading, but the best of her work that I've read is her big book of African Stories. It irritated me to hear Garrison Keillor on a recent Prairie Home Companion read snippets of Lessing's writings & ridicule her writing as clumsy & the choice of her to receive the Nobel Prize as a travesty. I found no inept writing in either book.